John's Wikipage for Asian Studies
Sino-Japanese-War-print-detail-640x250.jpg
Meiji Restoration Homework

Sino-Japanese War
How are the Chinese soldiers portrayed in these prints? The Japanese soldiers?
Chinese soldiers are portrayed as the ones who get attacked, defeated, and lose. They are also like demons, barbarians, and the ones who are bad. The faces of them show how Japanese people tried to inform how Japan is better and superior than China.
Look at the weapons used by each side, are they different? How? Does this tell us anything about Japanese technological advancement?
The weapons of Japanese are mostly western weapons rather than samurai swords. I could not see any of samurai swords in the picture but I assume there might be. Maybe not. It looks to be developed than the Chinese because it tells us that Japan developed in technology. China used spears for the most, guns sometimes. However, they were shown as demons, barbarians, and the weak ones when Japan was shown as the Heroes and one who have compassion.
Why do sports often become symbolic battlegrounds between nations?
Sports became symbolic battegrounds because it is a game that has a opposing side and it gets engaging. It also symbolizes the nation's power and unification of the citizens when playing a game. They get to cheer for their nation and unify each other.
Is imperialism/colonialism simply about militarily and politically controlling another nation, or is it also about proving one’s self-perceived cultural superiority over another?
No it is not, it is also proving one’s self perceived cultural superiority over another. By just taking over other nation militarily and politically does not mean the country is imperialized.Also, proving that the nation took cultural superiority over the other nation shows how they are impacted and imperialized for a long period. For example, Japan made us use Japanese and no Korean, which made a language called Wae Rae Uh(외래어) and it is still used by some people these days. By taking the cultural superiority and also controlling militarily and politically is the imperialism. Would you also say, though, that Japan sought membership to the "imperialist club", and thus needed a nation to take over? Or, was Japan exercising influence in a country that to them represented a threat to be taken over by another power, i.e. Russia, and thus could undermine their own security, and so had to annex Korea to ensure their own safety?


Russo Japanese War
  1. **Background to the Russo-Japanese War**
  2. View the wood block prints of the Russo-Japanese War
  3. View some of these images (at least 10) from **TopFoto Gallery - Russo-Japanese War**
  4. View all of the images (primarily photos) for History in Pictures - Russo-Japanese War
  5. View the films (Thomas Edison's work) of the war (staged) on this website: Meeting of Frontiers
  6. Provide answers to the following questions after completing the viewings above. Be certain to have viewed all of the work above. As you do, note what you see, and image how it may have impacted on a person from that era in Japan (and Russia):
    1. Do artistic renditions or photographs depict the heroics of war better?
      I believe that artistic reditions or photographs depict the heroics of the war better. The art is up to the artists and they can draw and express in whatever way they want. The drawings can be exaggerated or differed from the reality and it would be drawn to have advantage. As the drawings are subjective, it depicts the heroics of the war better.
    2. Do artistic renditions or photographs depict the horrors of war better? (Consider all photographs of war that you have seen, both historical and contemporary)
      I thought photographs depict the horrors of war better. All photographs are taken and are not subjective. It shows the fact as it is and it shows everything right away from the picture. By it isn’t exaggerated or altered by anyone, it depicts the horrors of war better.
    3. How does the medium affect the message? Can we say that, "[T]he medium is the message"? Medium affects the message in various ways. If the medium is drawn, created, or written by a person then most of the times it just includes one’s subjective point of view. However, if the medium is a picture taken right away clean, then it just shows the fact and does not give any kind of typical feeling that people are looking for.
    4. Why is 1905 such a turning point in Japanese and World history? How might history have been different had Japan lost the Russo-Japanese War?
      Russo Japanese war was a victory of Japan, and it was unpredicted because until that period, western countries were always winning and were ahead. It was a turning point because the Asian country won the war and it threatened some western countries that Asian countries are able to be stronger nations than them. If Japan lost the war, I believe that the colonization and imperializing of western countries might have lasted longer against the East. However, I still think that if not Japan, some other country must have showed the power of East and would have won the war somehow against west and made a turning point.

May 11th 2011

Queen Min

Reading 1.
1. Born in 1851 from an old family, married to Gojong in the age of 14 and became the queen of Chosun dynasty
2. Chosen to be queen because taewongun felt that Min would be a good wife and was young
3. Wise choice because she made a lot of accomplishments, building infrastructure, modern technology. Continue to develop balancing China, Japan, and Russia's control over Korea. Women had too much authority.
4. She tries to maintain Korean independence by buying time and developing in between.
5. Imperialist do what ever they can to dominate the country. Target of the imperialists. Assassinated. October 8th, 1895.
6. Admire for braveness and developed country when Korean needed develop. Kapsin rebellion (1882)

Isabella Bird
1. English writer and traveler who met queen min.
2. Impression of queen min was good and she stated he as nice looking, slender woman.
3. The clothes and jewelry worn by queen min shows that she was a high place in society.

Time Line Slogan
http://www.dipity.com/jhjung13/The-last-100-years-of-Chosun-Dynasty/